Smoked Cheddar To Chocolate Almond

Flavor themes of the week: coffee, cauliflower, seltzer, croissants.

White Noise.  Iced latte and black sesame and milk frozen yogurt swirl fantasticness.

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Home coffee for the week.  Starbucks espresso roast with chocolate milk.

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Breads Bakery.  Smoked cheddar croissant.

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Orwashers.  Almond and chocolate croissant.

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Yogurt bowl.  2% Fage with pomegranate, golden raisins, and luxardo cherries.

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Snack time.  Soursop yogurt drink / red walnuts and marcona almonds with rosemary / pinata apple.

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Kakigōri from a pop-up at Canal Street Market.  Japanese-style shave ice with black currant chocolate sauce, smoked almonds, and torched meringue.  Toasted meringue is one of my all-time favorite flavors.

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Luke’s Lobster.  Lobster rolls taste like butter squared.

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Pelicana.  Korean fried chicken is the best fried chicken, period.

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Not a winner dinner.  Cauliflower rice / sauteed bok choy with rice vinegar / ground turkey sauteed with chopped kimchi and gojuchang / soft boiled egg.  This had so much potential but I ended up stopping halfway through and eating fried chicken leftovers instead.

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Another night we were supposed to have cauliflower soup for dinner but I couldn’t deal with the blender so at the last minute I ended up making… whatever the hell this is.  At least it was tasty!  Sauteed yellow onion and leeks with celery seed and smoked paprika / roasted cauliflower / turkey bacon / sharp cheddar.

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Have a great weekend!

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Fresh On The Blog

Gotta love a three day weekend!  I don’t work today (hence the late post) and my plans include the dog, my bed, and The Office, the end.

My Friday, Saturday, Sunday were all pretty great too.  Friday, Adam drove me into work so we had before-work breakfast date and after-work dinner date (plus we basically consider the time driving in the car to be a date too!).  Saturday, I met up with girlfriends for brunch and discovered that Bayside, Queens – which is about 10 minutes from my house – is actually kind of great.  And Sunday, we had friends in from out of town and we got to show them the magic of Grand Central Whispering Gallery; plus the magic of coffee from Cafe Grumpy!

highlights…

Apertif.  I had a croque canard sandwich with duck rillettes, apple, brie, and béchamel.

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F.O.B.  A newish Filipino spot in Cobble Hill people have been (rightly) raving about.

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We got so much good food!  Corn bibingka – rice cake with farmers cheese, kesong puti, and coconut butter.

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Overnight chicken adobo and pechay – sautéed Chinese cabbage with chili and garlic.

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And Halo Halo – shaved ice with nata de coco, red beans, tapioca, mango, jackfruit, and ube ice cream!

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French Workshop.  We split something with white chocolate mousse, and hazelnuts, and milk chocolate ganache but there were about a million other things that looked good too.

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Joyce Bakeshop.  We’ve decided that we don’t love their coffee, but their kouign amann is my all-time favorite pastry.  Seriously, I like it more than filled croissants from Union Fair and cronuts from Dominique Ansel, and that bar is set pretty damn high.

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Kame Ramen in Nomad.  I had spicy chicken miso with sesame oil and a soft boiled egg.

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I did manage to cook one meal at home – loaded baked potato casserole / shredded chicken with bbq sauce / spinach salad with pomegranate, marcona almonds, and Trader Joe’s cilantro salad dressing.

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Have a great week!

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Emily Of Sandwich

This was a short week for me on the work front, I was off Monday from the weekend (with Adam!!) and off Thursday for a doctor’s appointment.  Wear your sunblock, kids – I have to have two moles surgically removed, one on my chest and one on my back, complete with stitches, giant gross scars, and a month straight of no gym and no normal showers.  At least I got a good lunch in Manhattan out of the deal?

Highlights…

We finally made it to Doughnut Project!  The Malter White was great, malted milk chocolate with a malted chocolate chip mini cookie and cookie crumble.

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We got a gift certificate to the Russian Tea Room for Christmas this year and we enjoyed a super fancy lunch.  We had vodka, of course.

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And caviar.

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And I had delicious Kulebiaka for my entree –  salmon with slow cooked onions, mushrooms, and vegetables wrapped in pastry, served with braised caraway cabbage and mustard beurre blanc.

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Yogurt bowl wins.  Greek with fresh strawberries and caramel almond butter.

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Strawberry Icelandic style with a fancy tangerine.

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Chicken quesadilla from La Esquina.

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Best ever ice cream from Ice & Vice.  Malted vanilla with sea salt caramel.

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Dessert at Vanilla Bean.  Banoffee tart for me and a crazy good iced latte.

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Caramelized banana peanut butter cups.

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It was sandwich week for dinners!  Croque Madame – rye bread, smoked turkey, sharp cheddar, strawberry jam, french toasted – with roasted broccoli and shishitos.

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Jalopeño popper turkey burgers with smoked gouda and roasted green beans.  We didn’t have buns but I’m still counting this as a sandwich.

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Asian-style turkey reubens – with gojuchang mayo and kimchi – with roasted shredded brussel sprouts.

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You Do Win Friends With Salad

Weekend highlights…

**Brunch at Freeks Mill a gorgeous, airy, much lauded restaurant in Gowanus.

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Paloma – Cimarron Blanco tequila, lime, contratto bitter, grapefruit, preserved lemon, salt.

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I had the puntarelle salad with anchovy vinaigrette, grana cheese, and a soft boiled egg.

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Plus Shishito peppers with honey and salt.

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We want to go back for dinner!

**Coffee and treats at Abboutsford Road, a fantastic coffee shop and roastery in Gowanus staffed and owned by handsome, friendly Aussies.  I had a yummy iced latte plus bites of a cheddar chive biscuit and lamington (chocolate cake, raspberry jelly, coconut) cupcake.

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I also had a ridiculously delicious cup of strawberry iced tea.

***Tea cake at Charlotte Patisserie.

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Macadamia nut cake filled with salted caramel and covered in milk chocolate.

**Cheese plate.  A crazy simple cheese plate, but a good one nonetheless.  Roasted green beans / baked whole wheat tortilla chips / smoked gouda / sweetened dried lemon.

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Plus chocolates from Dylan’s.

**Homemade Caesar salads with salmon.

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Romaine tossed in homemade dressing <– not worth the effort / crispy cheese bites for croutons / dijon and brown sugar baked salmon.

Quesadillas, Chilaquiles, And Burritos, Oh My!

As I flip from one classical musical references in my title to another in my opening line… This week these were a few of my favorite things –

Favorite breakfast – This incredibly excitingly pink coconut water.

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One of my coffee combos – Birch Cold Brew roast with vanilla cashew milk.  <– good idea in theory but the mouthfeel and taste were both sort of “empty” to me and I ended up having to add a splash of cow’s milk.

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Favorite yogurt bowl – Vanilla & Cinnamon Chobani with Brown Sugar Cinnamon peanut butter.  Plus a Kanzi apple.

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Favorite snack – an assortment of nuts and dried fruits from Trader Joe’s.

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Pears, persimmons, and sweetened dried lemons plus TJ’s nut and seed medley.

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I can’t choose one favorite dessert, they were all so good!  We were surprised by how tasty these TJ’s churro bites turned out to be.

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I made a batch of snack attack brownies!  This recipe, minus marshmallow, plus crushed potato chips, pretzels, and m&ms.

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And I was killing it in the dinner department this week.  Baked burritos – whole wheat tortillas / shredded chicken breast / sauteed onions and orange and yellow bell peppers cooked with cumin / shredded sharp cheddar cheese / TJ’s double roasted salsa.

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Chilaquiles, mostly from scratch.

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I made chips out of the whole wheat tortillas / cooked in salsa and diced tomatoes / with leftover onions and peppers / shredded chicken / lime / cheese / topped with a sunny side up egg and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt.

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Egg and cheese sandwiches with homemade sausage.

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Whole wheat hamburger buns toasted with mayonnaise / cheese / fried egg / turkey sausage made with smoked paprika, fresh sage, and maple syrup.

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Plus roasted green beans.

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And yesterday I had a late doctor’s appointment in the city so I grabbed dinner at La Esquina.  I had a ridiculously delicious chicken quesadilla with salsa verde.

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I am off of work today with a three-day weekend and we’ve got super fun dinner plans tonight, woo-hoo!

Good Coffee, Bad Coffee

Weekend coffee round-up:  The cold brew roast from Birch is fantastic.

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This Vita Cafe vanilla coconut water coffee is pretty darn good.

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And the vanilla iced latte from Panera is no good, terrible, very bad.  <– it was so sweet it was practically caustic, and that was with “light on syrup” and extra espresso!

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Saturday, Adam and I spent the day in Astoria.  We finally got to check out the Museum of the Moving Image, which had a great Jim Henson exhibit running.

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Plus we got a sprinkle cookie from Chip.

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Spent some time at the gorgeous newer, bigger Kinship.  <– maple cold brew, for the win

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And got brunch at Queens Comfort.  We shared the cornflake crusted chicken and waffle with maple tabasco glaze.

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And the Super Marios Benedict – cheesy cheddar chicken patty, home fries, poached egg, and hollandaise.

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Home-based highlights include a yogurt bowl for work – lemon Chobani, sour lemon raisins, blackberries, and strawberry granola minis.

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Cocktail hour.  Sprite, grapefruit seltzer, and vodka.

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Chicken hash bowls.

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Duck fat / shredded chicken / yellow onion / spring onion / red bell pepper / arugula / tater tots / cream cheese / smoked paprika / and a fried egg.

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Spicy Cherry Coke Chicken

This past week was extra-strength lengthy.  I stayed late at work a few days and had several issues with my train and the end result was that I was home more than two hours late almost every day this week – yuck!  I did manage to eat some good dinners still, but I did not manage to get this post up on time.

Best bites {or really should I be writing “superior sips” here because I always start with coffee?!} –

Iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk.

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I also had a yummy iced latte from Birch.

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And I tried the new blonde espresso from Starbucks.  <– quite good, felt like it should be paired with vanilla

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Peach Siggi’s with a Cara Cara orange and strawberry granola minis.

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Plain Icelandic style yogurt with maple taffy, Page mandarins, and sprinkled donut crunch cereal.

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I am a marketer’s dream; I don’t eat cereal all that often, and I hate Captain Crunch, but I still bought this because it was adorable!

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Adam and I both had Monday off, so we got to go on a lunch date!  Serendipity3.

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It was our best meal there to date, we were both swooning over our entrees.  I had curried chicken casserole with almonds and many bites of Adam’s sandwich.

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We came home with two-full-meals-worth of leftovers and were still almost too full for dessert.  Almost.  This sundae is the best thing ever – humble (peanut butter) pie / vanilla ice cream / sliced bananas / hot fudge.

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Bonus – we stopped at Dylan’s next door before our walk across the Queensborough bridge and bought a candy bar on a whim that ended up being fantastic.

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I made a big crockpot of Spicy Cherry Coke Chicken for dinners.  Basically this recipe but with Coke instead of Dr Pepper and chicken instead of pork and I diced up my cherries, chipotles, and jalapenos.

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Served on a sandwich with brioche bun and mayo.

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And roasted zucchini on the side.

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And served on top of nachos!

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My other dinners were brinners.

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Breakfast bowl with sauteed kale with tons of garlic and onion, Trader Joe’s meatless breakfast sausages, and two fried eggs.

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Scrambled eggs with tons of onion, chipotle, and sharp cheddar and roasted green beans on the side.

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Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Best Ever Iced Coffee

I survived the less-than-zero-degree weather!  My first winter in Buffalo I bought myself a pair of (children’s!) Sorrel snow-boots and they remain the single most essential item in my closet.

I worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so my weekend eats weren’t all that exciting.  Work was busy-busy so I mostly ate quick, snacky things.  The highlights…

Iced coffee with a crispy Pacific Rose apple.

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This New Orleans-style cold brew with sweetened condensed milk is officially my favorite coffee combo of all time.  I love Grady’s in general and this was perfectly spiced so with the SCM it was insanely delicious.

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Sooooo much hot chocolate.

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A giant smoothie I shared with Adam – plain Greek yogurt, frozen soursop, mango, and grapes.

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Toasted onion bagel with jalopeño-cheddar cream cheese.  I ended up scraping off part of my mountain of cream cheese like some kind of tourist.

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Watermelon / Sriracha chicken bar / vanilla crispy square.

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Maple salmon bar / TJ’s dried chokanan mango / TJ’s seed & bean medley.

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The first two nights of dinner I was thanking past Emily for leaving me yummy leftovers.  Hot wing pasta.

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Hot dish.  With ketchup and Sriracha on top.

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And Sunday night I finally got around to cooking the meal I had planned for the first night of Hannukah!

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I had kind of a bad foodie/good foodie thing going on – my latkes were from a box but my matzoh brie was fried in duck fat.

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I sprinkle sugar on mine because that’s how I grew up eating it.  And that’s a blob of labne on my latkes that I wished was sour cream.   Plus we had roasted broccoli with sumac.

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I am off of work today! and we are going somewhere fun for lunch!!